We, the undersigned, insist that President David Yager and the University of the Arts Board of Trustees take immediate steps to preserve and maintain the Crafts degree program and its facilities.

The decision to sunset the UArts Craft Program reveals both the profound insensitivity of President Yager and the Board to the essential nature and philosophical grounding of this institution, and the diverse interests of students arriving here to pursue a future in the visual arts. This sunsetting also fails to acknowledge, or harness, the renaissance of craft which has become a movement amongst young people nationwide.

Students care now more than ever about reconnecting with the physical world, about making things by hand, and thinking haptically. Neurologist Frank Wilson, speaking on the human capacity for passionate and creative work, refers to the hands as sensors. He asserts that when an artist is motivated to use their hands to make something well, it triggers a complex process that endows the work with a powerful emotional charge. This is the essence of Craft.

Young people everywhere are connecting their material engagement to a politics of sustainability using materials that are recycled, up-cycled, and green. These Craft students are concerned about their role as good citizens, and determined to create an alternative to the noise of digital culture.

In spite of the long and distinguished history of UArts as a leader of Craft innovation in America, UArts presidents have too often ignored these disciplines, and failed to support and nurture these programs. Faculty at the university recently voted 99% yes to create a union so that all of our voices will be heard by the administration on a wide range of issues. The sunsetting of the Craft Program is one more flagrant example of an administration making unilateral decisions about the future of this institution, without meaningful discussion or consensus with those who do the work of teaching.

Decisions about the fate of each program at UArts are now based on the short-sighted metric of student enrollment and the dollars that follow. The needs of Craft were ignored when the dramatic restructuring of the university’s School of Art occurred, causing loss of visibility, and then a decline in enrollment. The enrollment loss could be reversed by imaginative leadership willing to invest in the future and tap into the unique zeitgeist of this cultural moment, as has happened at other forward-thinking institutions where Crafts flourish. Instead, through the closure of the Crafts Program, this administration has shown a lack of investment in both the powerful legacy of Crafts, and the maintenance of an ethical and expansive arts education for students.

The University of the Arts is a historic institution which dates back to 1876. The development of the institution’s Craft Program was celebrated at its inception. UArts became the home of some of the twentieth century’s greatest Craft luminaries, including William Daley, Jack Lenor Larsen, Helen Williams Drutt, and Samuel Yellin, all of whom are part of UArt’s vital and influential Craft heritage.

Philadelphia institutions like the Fabric Workshop, the Clay Studio, the Center for Art in Wood, and Philadelphia / Craft Now, along with the former Crafts degree program at the University of the Arts, form a dynamic group of organizations, unlike any in the US. We cannot allow the centerpiece of Craft in this city to dissolve.